Credit repair software tools are available to assist both credit repair agencies and/or individual consumers with credit repair. Ideally, such repair software is user-friendly and allows the user to point and click to a series of questions, and subsequent options, to engage in the process of credit repair by challenging credit reports from the major credit bureaus.

There are many software companies to choose from. Some claim to be the “best” while others claim to have the “absolute best credit repair software on the planet.” They all provide a unique service with even more unique and distinct features. The issue that you need to consider most when selecting credit repair software is which feature set will benefit you the most. So let’s take a look at steps that will help you select the proper software package for you.

2. Your credit repair software must adhere to your personal needs. A lot of these products have numerous add-ons, bonuses and other things which you would be paying for, but may not need. For example, some vendors cater to credit professionals, so they have functionalities on client management, etc, which you don’t need as a home user. On the other hand, you might need financial tips or the automatic reminder system.

3. Keep in mind, that you may have to write letters and that you are a unique customer with a unique address, account number, social security number, and story behind your dispute, which will have to be inside the letter. This single activity will take you many hours to complete. Try to find a software that already has pre-loaded dispute letters. Then once the software has automatically extracted those disputes from the above mentioned credit report providers, this software will in turn suggest the appropriate dispute letter automatically within just a few seconds. Just imagine the hours, and amount of money you can save by just this feature alone. Most people have to hire or outsource this kind of work because their software does not do it automatically. So not only will you save time but you will also save money by not having to outsource the work.

4. Rank available packages through analyzing pros/cons/cost. Once you have a short list of possible software packages, try to rank them by analyzing the pros and cons of each, as well as comparing the cost to your budget.

5. See if there is a trial period for the software that you select. Now that you have selected which package you feel would be the best fit for you, make sure that there is a money back guarantee so that you can return it if you are not satisfied with the performance.

The more you work on your credit repair, the more that it will demand of your time. This is why it is extremely important to choose the best credit repair software available to help you automate the process as much as possible. Choosing the right software package for your needs can save you lots of time. Working with automated software can be compared to driving a car to a distant destination, versus walking there. One way will be significantly faster than the other. Repairing your credit will be much more difficult if you are not using an organized system.

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To understand the necessity for software engineering, we must pause briefly to look back at the recent history of computing. This history will help us to understand the problems that started to become obvious in the late sixties and early seventies, and the solutions that have led to the creation of the field of software engineering. These problems were referred to by some as “The software Crisis,” so named for the symptoms of the problem. The situation might also been called “The Complexity Barrier,” so named for the primary cause of the problems. Some refer to the software crisis in the past tense. The crisis is far from over, but thanks to the development of many new techniques that are now included under the title of software engineering, we have made and are continuing to make progress.

In the early days of computing the primary concern was with building or acquiring the hardware. Software was almost expected to take care of itself. The consensus held that “hardware” is “hard” to change, while “software” is “soft,” or easy to change. According, most people in the industry carefully planned hardware development but gave considerably less forethought to the software. If the software didn’t work, they believed, it would be easy enough to change it until it did work. In that case, why make the effort to plan?

The cost of software amounted to such a small fraction of the cost of the hardware that no one considered it very important to manage its development. Everyone, however, saw the importance of producing programs that were efficient and ran fast because this saved time on the expensive hardware. People time was assumed to save machine time. Making the people process efficient received little priority.

This approach proved satisfactory in the early days of computing, when the software was simple. However, as computing matured, programs became more complex and projects grew larger whereas programs had since been routinely specified, written, operated, and maintained all by the same person, programs began to be developed by teams of programmers to meet someone else’s expectations.

Individual effort gave way to team effort. Communication and coordination which once went on within the head of one person had to occur between the heads of many persons, making the whole process very much more complicated. As a result, communication, management, planning and documentation became critical.

Consider this analogy: a carpenter might work alone to build a simple house for himself or herself without more than a general concept of a plan. He or she could work things out or make adjustments as the work progressed. That’s how early programs were written. But if the home is more elaborate, or if it is built for someone else, the carpenter has to plan more carefully how the house is to be built. Plans need to be reviewed with the future owner before construction starts. And if the house is to be built by many carpenters, the whole project certainly has to be planned before work starts so that as one carpenter builds one part of the house, another is not building the other side of a different house. Scheduling becomes a key element so that cement contractors pour the basement walls before the carpenters start the framing. As the house becomes more complex and more people’s work has to be coordinated, blueprints and management plans are required.

As programs became more complex, the early methods used to make blueprints (flowcharts) were no longer satisfactory to represent this greater complexity. And thus it became difficult for one person who needed a program written to convey to another person, the programmer, just what was wanted, or for programmers to convey to each other what they were doing. In fact, without better methods of representation it became difficult for even one programmer to keep track of what he or she is doing.

The times required to write programs and their costs began to exceed to all estimates. It was not unusual for systems to cost more than twice what had been estimated and to take weeks, months or years longer than expected to complete. The systems turned over to the client frequently did not work correctly because the money or time had run out before the programs could be made to work as originally intended. Or the program was so complex that every attempt to fix a problem produced more problems than it fixed. As clients finally saw what they were getting, they often changed their minds about what they wanted. At least one very large military software systems project costing several hundred million dollars was abandoned because it could never be made to work properly.

The quality of programs also became a big concern. As computers and their programs were used for more vital tasks, like monitoring life support equipment, program quality took on new meaning. Since we had increased our dependency on computers and in many cases could no longer get along without them, we discovered how important it is that they work correctly.

Making a change within a complex program turned out to be very expensive. Often even to get the program to do something slightly different was so hard that it was easier to throw out the old program and start over. This, of course, was costly. Part of the evolution in the software engineering approach was learning to develop systems that are built well enough the first time so that simple changes can be made easily.

At the same time, hardware was growing ever less expensive. Tubes were replaced by transistors and transistors were replaced by integrated circuits until micro computers costing less than three thousand dollars have become several million dollars. As an indication of how fast change was occurring, the cost of a given amount of computing decreases by one half every two years. Given this realignment, the times and costs to develop the software were no longer so small, compared to the hardware, that they could be ignored.

As the cost of hardware plummeted, software continued to be written by humans, whose wages were rising. The savings from productivity improvements in software development from the use of assemblers, compilers, and data base management systems did not proceed as rapidly as the savings in hardware costs. Indeed, today software costs not only can no longer be ignored, they have become larger than the hardware costs. Some current developments, such as nonprocedural (fourth generation) languages and the use of artificial intelligence (fifth generation), show promise of increasing software development productivity, but we are only beginning to see their potential.

Another problem was that in the past programs were often before it was fully understood what the program needed to do. Once the program had been written, the client began to express dissatisfaction. And if the client is dissatisfied, ultimately the producer, too, was unhappy. As time went by software developers learned to lay out with paper and pencil exactly what they intended to do before starting. Then they could review the plans with the client to see if they met the client’s expectations. It is simpler and less expensive to make changes to this paper-and-pencil version than to make them after the system has been built. Using good planning makes it less likely that changes will have to be made once the program is finished.

Unfortunately, until several years ago no good method of representation existed to describe satisfactorily systems as complex as those that are being developed today. The only good representation of what the product will look like was the finished product itself. Developers could not show clients what they were planning. And clients could not see whether what the software was what they wanted until it was finally built. Then it was too expensive to change.

Again, consider the analogy of building construction. An architect can draw a floor plan. The client can usually gain some understanding of what the architect has planned and give feed back as to whether it is appropriate. Floor plans are reasonably easy for the layperson to understand because most people are familiar with the drawings representing geometrical objects. The architect and the client share common concepts about space and geometry. But the software engineer must represent for the client a system involving logic and information processing. Since they do not already have a language of common concepts, the software engineer must teach a new language to the client before they can communicate.

Moreover, it is important that this language be simple so it can be learned quickly.

Anyone can watch satellite TV online without any satellite dish system nowdays. In case you do not know, this article would show you one time-tested and another new revolutionary way to watch satellite TV on the internet without having to set up a satellite dish.

Many of the older generation grew up in an era of satellite dishes, especially for those who live in the rural areas where cable do not exist. The dishes are transmitters and together with receivers are conduits for TV signals to be displayed as visual images and pictures on our TV screens. However, they are not always pleasant. Set up can be tough and definitely not for those who are not good with their hands or have poor technical skills. Satellite dishes have grown smaller in recent years but they used to be larger than 6 foot monsters in earlier days. If that irks you, you would be relieved to know that you can watch satellite TV online just like many others without satellite dish system.

What are the hardware and PC requirements you need to set up your 'satellite-dish less' PC satellite online TV?

1. A Good PCTV Card

A PCTV card can be installed onto your computer to make your computer work like a satellite television set. Such cards come in the form of internal or external hardware. If you are familiar with the inside of a computer, then an internal card could be a good choice since they tend to be cheaper and more affordable. However, do not bother yourself when you find it too troublesome to fix it internally because there are external cards that work more like plug-and-play gadgets. They cost more and can set you back easily by a few hundreds. As long as your PC has a spare USB port, this option to watch satellite TV online is open to you.

2. PC Requirements

I would suggest you check your systems configuration before you start shopping for a PCTV card. Most cards require a minimum Pentium 3 333MHz system to run well but remember to note down the specifications like RAM, hard disk space, Operating System, etc before you head to the stores.

3. Ready Internet Connection

PCTV cards work well with both dial-up and broadband connections. However, I have a word of advice here. Dial-up transmission runs like a snail and is a really serious party spoiler. You can end up more frustrated than glad that you are watching the program. Go for broadband connection if you can afford to.

Okay, now that we have discussed about the older commonly accepted method to watch satellite TV online, we will look at another new revolutionary technique. This requires the usage of PC satellite TV software which can be downloaded easily. The setup is simple and all it takes is downloading the software and clicking a few buttons before you are ready to watch satellite TV online from more than 3000 channels. Awesome is not it?

For more information on this PC satellite TV software, do a read up at my satellite TV blog.

This article may be freely reprinted or distributed in its entity in any ezine, newsletter, blog or website. The author's name, bio and website links must remain intact and be included with every reproduction.

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We are living in an age that is highly influenced by technology. Most of the activities we need to do now are automatic or computerized. Of all the technological developments achieved in the recent past, one significant tool that got developed and which will certainly keep influencing our lives is the computer. You would agree that computers play a very basic role in our daily life, just like the television and the cell phone. We are already at a stage where life will be difficult without a computer. That makes it important to understand the way a computer works, and then be informed of what we should do if it stops working. The most important part of any computer is its hardware, in the absence of which it just can not function.

If you are really keen to assess what has gone wrong with your computer when it stops working, you should understand the working and constituents of its hardware. You should especially have solid knowledge about the computer hardware when you want to undertake its troubleshooting on your own. One important part of the hardware is the RAM memory of any computer. For running any program or application, any computer needs a RAM memory. Other than that, if the computer has a RAM with specifications that are not compatible with the programs it is expected to run, its operation will be slowed down and it would almost crawl. When choosing a computer, you need to ensure that its hardware is not outdated, otherwise you'll have to upgrade it in order to be able to use the intended program.

You must take certain basic precautions while handling the hardware of computers. The most essential precaution is to ensure that the power supply to your computer is switched off, else it could cause an electric shock. Then, before you touch any part within the computer, ensure that you are not carrying any electric charge by connecting to a grounded piece of metal or you may procure an anti-static mat or wrist band available in the market. While inspecting the hardware components, you should look for broken or damaged component, as these are most likely the reasons for the computer malfunction. If a component does not fit in the slot, you are probably trying to fit it in the incorrect slot.

Once you know the hardware employed in your computer and the role it plays in the functionality of your computer, you'll be in a position to undertake its troubleshooting when it malfunctions. Each piece of hardware contributes to the successful function of the computer. To a large extent, the working of a computer depends on the quality of its hardware, making it imperative to keep it in good condition.

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“The single most important task of a project: setting realistic expectations. Unrealistic expectations based on inaccurate estimates are the single largest cause of software failure.”- Futrell, Shafer

Introduction

With global and competitive market, it is very important to launch a product or service in the market on time, ahead of competitors. Definitely, timely launch depends on on-time-completion of the product development projects. Project planning has lots of challenges to overcome in order to finish the project on time – right from schedule predictability, envisioning future/possible risks and coming up with mitigation plans.

This article talks about some of the challenges, often faced in the Software Product Development industry that causes the schedule slippage.

Schedule slippage: Delay in the project completion from its initial estimated date of completion.

Each project plan will have a planned completion date (NRA, RA), and a bounding box or upper limit in schedule. Nowadays, it is a common practice to have three dates associated with any project plan:

Risk Adjusted (RA) date: Project completion date assuming some risks will come on the way and will need extra time to attend to them.

Bounding Box (BB) or upper limit: The upper limit on the project plan before which the project has to be finished under any circumstances – Generally decided by the top management based on product/services roadmap and launch in the market.

Under ideal circumstances, any project is scheduled to complete by NRA date. Considering some risks that may come on the way and would eat some time off the schedule, the project should be over by RA date. If the risks were not envisioned and hence not planned well, then project may get delayed and would complete after RA date. Project completion crossing the RA or upper limit is neither good nor expected out of a well-planned project.

Root Causes

As we always plan for a project to get over before RA date, seldom is the case it happens as expected. There are multiples reasons for schedule slippage, right from improper planning, lack of resources to unplanned requirements and rework that eat away vital time off the planned schedule.

A typical project development process – Each project will have a team (development, testing and other functions) that will work through a process (requirement analysis, schedule estimation, design, implementation and testing) to deliver a product to the customer/end user. Each entity that participate in the project – directly or indirectly affect the schedule.

From the development process, we can identify the items that can cause delay in the execution of the project – for example, misinterpreted or unclear requirement adds up to completion time, unavailability of development tools or resources can prolong the project duration. Various processes like schedule estimation, detailed design and product development if not executed skillfully, may significantly blow up the project cycle.

For better understanding all these possible causes that may result in schedule slippage are categorized .

Let’s have a detailed look at the root causes of schedule slippage category wise.

For a project to be executed on time, it is very important to have it planned very well. Any mistake in project schedule estimation reflects as delay in the project completion from its deadline. There are several factors that contribute to improper schedule estimation:

· Underestimation of technical complexities: At the start of the project, many of the team members may not have thorough knowledge of technical complexities and hence their estimation would be incorrect. Sometimes it may so happen that the person giving estimates for a particular task is having no idea about the technical challenges involved in carrying out that particular task. You might hear, towards the mid/end of the project life cycle when the task is not finished on time – “Oh, I didn’t know that this feature also requires 5 more tasks to be done!” or “I was thinking this task to be so simple, but I under estimated it!”. · Lack of Design/Big picture: It is important to have a bigger picture / overview of the complete project to understand how a particular module/feature would fit in to complete project. Product or system level design helps in understanding the interfaces among other modules and the required coordination for product assembly and hence, a better insight into the work involved. Often, estimates without focus on detailed design tend to deviate more from the actual time taken for finishing the job. · Integration Testing: While making a project plan, testing also needs to be accommodated in the schedule. At times, the unit testing or testing done by individual contributors on their module is taken into account but not the system level testing. Toward the release, when all the individually tested modules are brought together, a system level or integration testing is a must. Having the time for integration testing not accounted in the overall project schedule will cause delay in the project completion.

· Unplanned dependencies: Project planning is not only about breaking the project into minute tasks and managing them. A well-planned project schedule also needs to consider certain unplanned dependencies. Some of these are:

o People: Optimum utilization of human resources calls for same set of people working in multiple projects. A person may not be available to work for currently planned/assigned project due to extended/unplanned work in another parallel project. Another issue related to people could be unplanned/unexpected attrition that will affect the project plan. Time is also lost in mentoring of new member by a senior (more experienced) person which goes unaccounted if not planned.

o Tools & Equipments: Project can be delayed if team is waiting for release of upgrade or procurement of any vital tool (hardware or software being used in the project) or if the equipments required for development and testing are not available. “We had a 3-months project for validating our existing solution on new product platform using customer DUT (device under test). We had to wait for the DUT for nearly 1.5 months as it got stuck in customs. After getting the DUT, we realized that it’s been damaged partially during transportation. As a result we had to ask for another DUT and whole project took more than 5 months to get finished.” – I am sure that such cases will be quite familiar to many organizations. Other reason for timely unavailability of tools / equipments is that they are shared among various projects to reduce the operating cost. Any unplanned dependency on their usage or wrong assumption about availability of these shared resources would cause delay in the program. Team members might have to work on shifts to optimize the usage of shared resources which can cause reduced work hours and/or productivity loss and results to schedule slippage.

“I was waiting for Matlab license to be released by another person in the team but he left the office without doing so and I lost 3 hours figuring out what to do?” – is it something you faced before?

o Other programs: If multiple programs have deliverable dependencies, then delay in one project will have cascaded effect on other projects, which directly or indirectly depend on its deliverable. “We got delayed because we had to wait for a critical UI component from the framework project team” or “We didn’t plan for bug fixes for a component which was supposed to be delivered defect free for our usage” are the common scenarios for delays in program which are dependent on other program deliverables. Parallel programs may affect the schedule of your program in a different way as well – Sometimes, management changes the priority of the programs running in parallel. If your project is considered as a low priority one then there might be lack of resources assigned to your project that may result in schedule slippage.

· Beta releases: How many times we seek feedback on our product during development? And how often we allocate time for it? It’s important to plan beta releases if we desire to have our product validated by expert users or lighthouse customers during development. Getting feedback from beta customers becomes important especially when their requirements echo that of a mass customer base. Process of giving workable releases to customers, collecting their experience, having their feedback analyzed, and then incorporating in the final product version takes significant time.

· Risk mitigation and plan B: Every project will have some or the other risks. These risks can be of varying severity and probabilities. While making project plan, it is important to treat the risk individually based on their severity and probability of occurrence. If high probable risks with higher severity are not planned with their mitigation plan (or plan B), they will have huge impact on schedule deviation from planned one. As in one of the previous examples quoted, getting a DUT on time for validation was a risk. Had there been a mitigate plan (plan B) like – Validate with other DUT or if DUT is not available here, let one developer travel to customer’s place and finish the validation on time, the schedule slippage would have been avoided.

2) People: Ultimately, projects are executed by people who may not be skilled or talented. Hence, looking for perfection in projects involving human beings may not be a feasible thought. Certain unpredictable and hence unavoidable issues under this category are:

· Poor leadership: Before thinking of project execution, it is project planning that actually would set the platform of success. Execution of the project depends on its team while planning is taken care by the project leader. The project leader is expected to have enough technical know-how to understand the project goals and to the details of the tasks involved. Poor leadership and superficial knowledge of assignments often results in invalid effort estimation and ad hoc task delegation causing stress and possible delay in project execution. People leading the team are also responsible for keeping the team spirit and motivation level upbeat. Poor personal commitment due to lack of motivation results in loss of productivity and may cause schedule to slip. Another reason that adds up to delay in projects is inability of leadership team to track the schedule progress and take the correction action.

· Attrition: If the project duration is large and job market is hot, it may be difficult to retain people in the project till its completion. Attrition may further delay the completion especially if the person leaving the job was in critical path. A person leaving the organization would leave a gap in the project that a new person may not fill immediately, which in turn causes sudden reduction in the task force.

· Learning curve: When ever a new person or team member is included in the project, he or she may require some time to understand the project to keep in pace with other members. Learning curve is needed for new team members, joining the team either due to attrition or due to any specific technical competency requirement. · Context switching: In smaller organization or groups where people work on multiple projects simultaneously, it is important to have some buffer for context switching. A person planned to work in project ‘A’ for two hours after a gap of two weeks, would take more than scheduled time to complete that task. Gap of two weeks and the fact that he or she was involved in other project would require some time for the member to get back to the context of current project. · Global development teams: In an era of globalization and outsourcing, it is common these days to have development team distributed over different geographical regions. Project plan needs to account for different time zones and working culture. You might expect an input for your task on Monday morning your time but it may be Sunday late evening for that person and finally when the input arrives, you might be on your way to home after work.

Sometimes schedule estimation might go completely wrong if you have not understood the work culture of the region your teammate belongs to – “In my previous work, I was given a task to be completed with a heads up that its very critical task and needs immediate attention’. When I asked my project lead how many days/hours I have for it, I had been time for 2 weeks for high priority and ‘immediate-attention’ work.” Definition of ‘urgent’, ‘high priority tasks’ changes with culture and region.

· Communication Issues: People communicate differently. If important issues are not brought to the notice of the team members, or are not escalated on time, the entire project may suffer. Often fear of embarrassment stops team members from reporting issues faced during execution leading to more time being spent on that task that can easily be executed additional help.

3) Customer Involvement: These issues are quite serious if customer or end users of the product are involved in the development phase. Understanding customer’s priorities, defining your expectation from their involvement needs to be clear and in agreement with both the parties.

· Expert user testing: In the beginning of the project, expert user testing cycle needs to be planned. Process of giving builds or releases for testing and collecting their feedback, analyzing and incorporating them in your product takes significant time which, if not planned, can delay your program. · Timely feedback: “I got feedback from customers for features, delivered in development milestone-1, after milestone-5 towards the release. These feedbacks are critical but now I am worried how to incorporate them without affecting the schedule.” It sounds like a common problem. Incorporation of feedback from customers needs to be planned well taking a commitment from the customer. · Product requirement specification review: Having a product requirement review planned and executed will keep you on right track throughout the project. Reviewing the requirement specification will avoid requirement related defects fixing which otherwise would have delayed, the project.

4) Ambiguous Project Requirement: For any project to be initiated, the first thing is to have requirements for it. In the product development life cycle, requirement phase acts like a foundation. Clear requirement or vision for the project navigates the team to success. However, requirements may not be clear at the time of estimation and may result in delay in the project completion. Issues related:

· Evolving specs: If you are making a product based on a standard which is not yet matured or still evolving, you are more prone to have this risk. Frequency changes in the specs will change the requirement for the project during different stages of product development and team will continue to work on something that is not yet evolved. This results in rework that would delay the project if time for dealing with these changes is not accommodated in the schedule. “We developed an algorithm and hence measurement that was based on certain industry standard. Towards the release of the product, the specs changed and our measurement was no more valid. We had to redo the algorithm to reflect the changes in the specs. This caused our product release delayed by 2 months.” · New requirements: Sometimes new requirements are added as the project evolves towards completion. Implementation of new requirements is not planned at the beginning of the project and hence is not accounted in schedule. Adding new feature without revising the schedule may result in delay.

· Untold expectation: Requirements from the customers may be of two types – implicit or explicit. It is important to have the requirements well documented. Implicit requirements needs to be better defined and documented to avoid any confusion towards the end of the project. Customers may not describe their requirements related to system performance, memory issues, user interface quality and usability but they are very keen on providing feedback in those aspects once the product is given for expert user testing. If we are not clear about such requirements, out design might not address them. Addressing them towards the end of the project may call for design changes and extra work that would delay the project.

5) Unplanned Tasks / Reworks: Bounding box for the project is set by higher management and often lack buffer for unplanned task(s). Having more of unplanned task that creep up at different phases of project can cause schedule slippage. The unplanned tasks or rework may arise due to:

· Sustaining work: In smaller organizations, some of the project team may also be responsible for sustaining / customer support of existing products. These unplanned tasks, which come on event basis, related to customer support are always of high priority. Excess or prolonged sustaining work may take resource out of the planned project causing a potential threat for schedule slippage. · Defect fixes: Defects are bad as they degrade the product quality and consume extra time/effort to fix them. It is good to have testing of the intermediate releases of the project to find and fix defects sooner in the development life cycle. If the fixing-cycle for such internal-milestone defects is not planned, then either the project is either going to slip or product is going to be of poorer quality. Poor programming skill of the team, not adapting to modern programming practices and having ad hoc development processes may lead to higher number of defects which would take more time to fix then planned and cause slippage.

· Task spillover from previous milestone: Tasks that are not completed in previous milestone, due to whatever reason (inefficiency, vacation of the team member, resource crunch etc), will have to be completed in the next milestone thereby increasing the load on the team. If adequate buffer is not planned, these tasks spilled from previous milestone over to next, can delay the project. · Requirement change / refinement: Requirement changes during the product development will result in rework of what has been previously done with first version of requirement(s). Addressing changes in the requirements needs extra time and effort and may cause schedule slippage. In some cases, the requirement from customer is misunderstood resulting in wrong system design and implementation. Additional, unplanned time is lost in correcting the design/implementation which causes schedule slippage.

Conclusion

On time delivery is the challenge software development companies are facing globally. To have a complete control over estimated schedule, it is very important to identify the elements in the development cycle that cause schedule slippage. This article uncovers and explains the root causes of delay in programs using examples from real world. Having an insight to the root causes will help the program managers to make good decisions to avoid future schedule slippage.

Regardless of a mortgage lending organizations’ size, mortgage loan software, data security solutions and automation tools and services should be able to assist with mortgage loan automation requirements. In today’s chaotic mortgage lending environment origination and document security systems need to be easily configured to emphasize a company’s special needs and increase efficiencies across all aspects of the loan origination process, allowing lenders to increase quality and productivity.

Technology-driven automation is the key to succeeding in the increasingly complex, deeply scrutinized mortgage industry. Web-based (Software-as-a-Service), Enterprise mortgage software that supports the ten primary functions in mortgage banking will provide lenders with the necessary competitive advantages to succeed in today’s mortgage industry.

Ten Primary Functions in Mortgage Banking

Mortgage Web site design, implementation, and hosting to provide product, service, loan status, and company information to mortgage customers and business partners

Online loan applications for gathering information from borrowers and business partners that issue loan terms, disclosures, and underwriting conditions

G DATA Antivirus is a complete protection solution for your home computer. However, no matter the reason is that corrupt virus signatures may have caused it not to upgrade properly, it will not work regularly and needs to be repaired, or probably corrupt files are causing 100% CPU usage, etc. Like all other antivirus software, there also may be times when you have to uninstall and remove G DATA Antivirus.

The standard method of uninstalling G DATA Antivirus is from Windows built-in Add / Remove Programs, but sometimes the removal process will hang and you may be unable to remove this program from your computer, because some registry entries and spaces may still be left in Your system. In this case, if you wish to completely remove this antivirus, you have to delete all those sticky registry entries, processes, services, as well as related folders and files.

Removing all instances of this antivirus program can be extremely tricky and there is a risk of damaging the operating system if not done properly. Then you can try using a good removal tool to help you remove this program automatically in seconds. Perfect Uninstaller is one of such software. It works in a very simple manner. Aside from working to remove G DATA Antivirus, it can also get rid of other unwanted programs from your computer.

1. It offers a much quicker and easier way to completely remove programs which can not be removed through "Add / Remove Programs". 2. It completely deletes empty or corrupt registry entries. 3. It has the "force uninstall" function to forcibly uninstall corrupted or hidden programs. 4. It has the "Special Uninstall" function designed for some very specific programs in that list 5. It can restore the registry to a previous state, and restore files from the recycle bin (files deleted into the recycle bin).

Uninstall and remove G DATA Antivirus from your system before proceeding with the installation of the next antivirus that you would like to set up, otherwise the antivirus will conflict and give much trouble that you will not be able to recover Windows from the crash.

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Bug tracking has been around as early as the 1940’s, just not in a software form. In these early days, simply using a pen and a paper created tracking systems. It evolved from then to using spreadsheets. Now there is bug tracking software like the defect tracking tool and even more specific programs like Mantis and Bugzilla, just to name a couple. As with anything that evolves however, there will always be those that are 100% for the programs and those that are against it. This article will cover all claims – both positive and negative – of bug tracking software like the defect tracking tool.

The Positive Claims

It certainly depends on the type of bug tracking software that is used, but it seems as if there are many more advantages to these tools than disadvantages. The most obvious advantage is that these types of tools allow companies to keep a record of the issues that are recorded, who fixed them, and even how long it took to fix the issue for some types of programs. Customers are encouraged to be as detailed as they can be when requesting that an issue be fixed so that companies can complete their requests as quickly as possible. The fact that the issues are recorded and saved is a huge benefit for the companies because sending the recorded bug list with the purchased software is a common practice. This is a benefit to customers because if it is a common error, they can simply look up this issue in the previously recorded bug list. However, if the list is incredibly long (a common disadvantage) it can become more of a hassle.

The Negative Claims

As with anything that has a list of positive aspects there is also a list of negative aspects, though there are few. One of the biggest complaints is not so much from the bug tracking software or defect tracking tool itself but more from the process of submitting issue requests. Customers need to be extremely detailed with their issue requests if they want a detailed response. Miscommunication isn’t a fault of the product, the customer, or the company – it’s simply something that happens. Customers and companies alike both need to remember to be patient with each other and to treat each other with a mutual respect. A second complaint that was previously mentioned is the length of issues in some of these software programs.

Some customers don’t have the patience to look through a long list of software issues that have been previously recorded and this causes frustration among the companies that took the time to purchase software that saves them. The length of issues that are submitted can also become a problem because if there are too many issues submitted and not enough engineers to address them, some can get overlooked. Nobody likes to be forgotten, but usually these types of bug tracking software include detailed instructions and are easy to use.

Usually when a company purchases a bug tracking software or defect tracking tool it already has an experienced IT department in place. Whatever the software is that is being used with these programs should have some sort of backup for when the work is completed so it does not get lost if the issues that occur are deadly.

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A kernel error is a failure in some code critical to Windows. If you have ever encountered a Blue Screen of Death (BSoD), then you have seen a kernel error. Windows is actually several layers of programs made to work together. You can think of Windows as if it were your body, with many pieces working together to make a whole, and, like your body, some parts of Windows are more important than others.

The kernel is the most important part of Windows. It includes critical programs to handle things like memory management and device drivers for the graphics card. These programs are like a body's heart and brain. If something in the kernel crashes, it will often cause all of Windows to crash.

Software Failures

Because there are a lot of programs in the kernel, there are many opportunities for bugs to appear. Although Microsoft does extensive testing to get rid of bugs, their testing facilities can not run through all the combinations that billions of computers use with Windows when some bugs get through.

However, many of the kernel failures are in device drivers written by companies that make hardware, not by Microsoft. Your graphics card, for example, probably uses a driver created by the video company. These companies often work with Microsoft to test their drivers, but having companies working together adds an additional layer of complexity.

Hardware Failures

A hardware failure can cause a kernel error. If your graphics card fails, it can send bad data to the graphics device driver, which then crashes, creating a kernel error. If your hard disk fails, it can corrupt files used by Windows and cause the programs that use those files to crash.

Registry Failures

Registry failures can cause kernel errors. The registry is a database of information that Windows uses to store information about programs. If the registry gets corrupt, the programs that use it can cause kernel errors.

Registry corruption can come from either software or hardware failures. Software corruption can come from a bug in one of the programs that writes information out to the registry. Or if you turn off your computer without doing a complete shutdown, the registry files may not get completely written to the disk. Hardware corruption can happen when the hard disk fails causing parts of the registry files to be lost. It's a good idea to do some research on kernel errors and other registry issues.

Spyware is a general term used to describe software that performs certain behaviors such as advertising, collecting personal information, or changing the configuration of your computer, generally without appropriately obtaining your consent first.

Spyware is often associated with software that displays advertisements (called adware) or software that tracks personal or sensitive information.

That does not mean all software that provides ads or tracks your online activities is bad. For example, you might sign up for a free music service, but you “pay” for the service by agreeing to receive targeted ads. If you understand the terms and agree to them, you may have decided that it is a fair tradeoff. You might also agree to let the company track your online activities to determine which ads to show you.

Other kinds of Spyware make changes to your computer that can be annoying and can cause your computer slow down or crash.

These programs can change your Web browsers home page or search page, or add additional components to your browser you don’t need or want. These programs also make it very difficult for you to change your settings back to the way you originally had them.

The key in all cases is whether or not you (or someone who uses your computer) understand what the software will do and have agreed to install the software on your computer.

There are a number of ways Spyware or other unwanted software can get on your computer. A common trick is to covertly install the software during the installation of other software you want such as a music or video file sharing program.

Any software that covertly gathers user information through the user’s Internet connection without his or her knowledge, usually for advertising purposes. Spyware applications are typically bundled as a hidden component of freeware or shareware programs that can be downloaded from the Internet; however, it should be noted that the majority of shareware and freeware applications do not come with SpyWare. Once installed, the Spyware monitors user activity on the Internet and transmits that information in the background to someone else. Spyware can also gather information about e-mail addresses and even passwords and credit card numbers

Aside from the questions of ethics and privacy, SpyWare steals from the user by using the computer’s memory resources and also by eating bandwidth as it sends information back to the spy ware’s home base via the user’s Internet connection. Because SpyWare is using memory and system resources, the applications running in the background can lead to system crashes or general system instability.

Because SpyWare exists as independent executable programs, they have the ability to monitor keystrokes, scan files on the hard drive, snoop other applications, such as chat programs or word processors, install other SpyWare programs, read cookies, change the default home page on the Web browser, consistently relaying this information back to the SpyWare author who will either use it for advertising/marketing purposes or sell the information to another party.

Licensing agreements that accompany software downloads sometimes warn the user that a SpyWare program will be installed along with the requested software, but the licensing agreements may not always be read completely because the notice of a SpyWare installation is often couched in obtuse, hard-to-read legal disclaimers.

Examples of SpyWare

These common SpyWare programs illustrate the diversity of behaviors found in these attacks. Note that as with computer viruses, researchers give names to SpyWare programs which may not be used by their creators. Programs may be grouped into “families” based not on shared program code, but on common behaviors, or by “following the money” of apparent financial or business connections. For instance, a number of the SpyWare programs distributed by Claria are collectively known as “Gator”. Likewise, programs which are frequently installed together may be described as parts of the same SpyWare package, even if they function separately.

o CoolWebSearch, a group of programs, takes advantage of Internet Explorer vulnerabilities. The package directs traffic to advertisements on Web sites including coolwebsearch.com. It displays pop-up ads, rewrites search engine results, and alters the infected computer’s hosts file to direct DNS lookups to these sites.

o Internet Optimizer, also known as DyFuCa, redirects Internet Explorer error pages to advertising. When users follow a broken link or enter an erroneous URL, they see a page of advertisements. However, because password-protected Web sites (HTTP Basic authentication) use the same mechanism as HTTP errors, Internet Optimizer makes it impossible for the user to access password-protected sites.

o Zango (formerly 180 Solutions) transmits detailed information to advertisers about the Web sites which users visit. It also alters HTTP requests for affiliate advertisements linked from a Web site, so that the advertisements make unearned profit for the 180 Solutions Company. It opens pop-up ads that cover over the Web sites of competing companies.

o HuntBar, aka WinTools or Adware,WebSearch was installed by an ActiveX drive-by download at affiliate Web sites, or by advertisements displayed by other SpyWare programs-an example of how SpyWare can install more SpyWare. These programs add toolbars to IE, track aggregate browsing behavior, redirect affiliate references, and display advertisements.

oZlob Trojan or just Zlob, Downloads itself to your computer via ActiveX codec and reports information back to Control Server. Some information can be as your search history, the Websites you visited, and even Key Strokes.

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